A sunbather on Wildwood Beach in New Jersey was left with severe injuries after being run over by a police officer responding to an incident nearby. The woman, who remains unidentified, was laying on a towel when the cop driving a pickup truck ran over her torso at approximately 3:30 pm Wednesday. Eyewitness accounts describe multiple people coming to her aid, lifting the front end of the Ford F-150 off her while others dug in the sand to help.
Rose Simone, one of those who assisted, told reporters that the woman was wearing dark clothes and sitting on the towel with a man before the incident occurred. The man had been swimming when the truck ran her over. According to Simone’s testimony, people started screaming for the driver to stop when they saw the victim trapped under the vehicle. The officer involved in the accident reportedly responded by jumping out of his truck.
Another witness, Ryan Cortes, criticized the police officer’s actions, saying he was “swerving in and out of the beach” too closely to where people were situated. He also noted that citizens nearby had to yell at the truck to stop, gathering around to lift it off of the woman trapped underneath.
The victim is expected to survive but will likely face a long road to recovery with injuries including several broken ribs, three broken vertebrae, and an unspecified lung injury. The injured woman was placed on a backboard and taken to a waiting ambulance by first responders, while investigators worked the scene for about an hour afterward.
Wildwood Police Chief Joseph Murphy stated that the officer involved is usually assigned to patrol the beach area. Although he did not disclose the identities of the victim or officer, he confirmed that the department’s internal affairs bureau would be looking into the incident. A spokesperson for Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office told The Post they were not investigating the accident and referred any further inquiries back to the Wildwood police department.
